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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The Center for Biological Diversity has appealed an air permit for the planned coal-fired Desert Rock power plant on the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico.The appeal of the Environmental Protection Agency's permit contends the EPA failed to consider the plant's effect on threatened and endangered species.The center says the Endangered Species Act requires such an analysis.Dine (DIH'-neh) Power Authority and Houston-based Sithe Global Power are partners in the 1,500-megawatt plant southwest of Farmington.A senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, Amy Atwood, says the EPA is trying to ignore their obligation by insisting the Bureau of Indian Affairs is handling Endangered Species Act requirements.

Desert Rock spokesman Frank Maisano says the Endangered Species Act has nothing to do with the air permit.